Monopods and bipods are known for use with rifles and other light arms for supporting a portion of the weight of the rifle on a support surface to improve aiming and reduce fatigue. They are also sometimes used to support other aimed devices, such as spotting scopes and cameras, for example. Bipods specially designed for use with rifles and other long guns typically attach directly to the gun barrel or to a forend (forward part) of the gun stock. Some known firearm bipods include legs that pivot together for storage. Many bipods for rifles include relatively complicated mechanical pivot and adjustment mechanisms and are heavy and expensive to manufacture. In addition to increasing a user's load-carrying burden, the weight of a heavy bipod is also believed to impair the aim and/or accuracy of the firearm to which it is mounted. Many other issues relating to various known bipod designs are described in or evident from prior patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,622 of Desch, Jr. describes an integrated firearm stock and support system including a pair of pivoting and telescoping bipod legs that are retractable into a slot in the underside of the forend of the stock for storage. This convenient bipod is relatively lightweight and compact, but requires the gun to be retrofitted or custom made with the special stock.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,843,015 of Sharp describes a bipod and mount featuring a ball-in-socket joint between the bipod and the firearm. In one embodiment, the ball attachment of the ball-and-socket joint is attached to the firearm via a sling swivel stud commonly found along the underside of the forend of the stock on most rifles. In this embodiment, the ball attachment also includes an auxiliary sling swivel stud that extends aft of where the ball attachment attaches to the firearm. The socket is formed in a split body of the bipod, which is made of two pieces of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene to facilitate a detachable snap-fit between the ball and socket. The legs of the Sharp '015 bipod are rotatably connected to the body so that they can be folded together for storage and transport.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,188 of Harris describes a bipod adapter including an elongate rubber hinge-like member that extends longitudinally along the underside of the barrel between a base member attached to the forend of the firearm stock and a bipod mounting member to which a bipod is coupled. The rubber hinge member is strong enough to support the firearm in the normal position, but yieldable to allow the firearm to be manually pivoted to either side relative to the bipod when resting the bipod's legs on an uneven surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,071 of Peterson describes a hiking staff including a threaded stud that extends from its upper end for attaching an inverted-V-shaped monopod head thereto. Peterson '071 also describes the use of two such hiking staffs with an articulating head to form an adjustable bipod rest for guns, binoculars, cameras, and the like. These bipod and monopod devices are readily disassembled and feature multi-use components. However they lack a coupling for attaching the monopod or bipod to a firearm.
The present inventor has recognized a need for improved monopod and multipod support devices.